Over the last couple of weeks, trade chatter involving Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins has picked up a little bit.
Cousins himself said this week that he’s open to a potential deal out of Washington because he has his eyes on an NFL starting job. Now his view of that goal is clearer. Cousins had Lasik surgery on his eyes this week so that he could stop wearing contacts and hopes that there might be some other benefits to his eyesight in the future.
“If it gets to 20-15, then there’s an obvious improvement,” Cousins said, via John Keim of ESPN.com. “In this league the difference between Pro Bowl and getting cut is that small. For me in shotgun, when I go through the cadence my eyes are on the defense but as I’m closer to saying hut my eyes have to stay on the ball. To have my eye on the ball coming at me, I still have to feel a blitz from the left or right to know if you need to throw a hot or if the corner is blitzing off the edge. There’s a lot to process and you have to feel the pass rush. The more you can see out of the corner of your eye – blitzes, pass protection, open receivers – all of it is effective. When you have strong peripheral vision you can take in a lot of information at once.”
We’ll see whether this performance enhancing surgery makes Cousins a more valuable commodity on the trade market. While the Redskins surely enjoy having a capable backup after watching Robert Griffin III miss time in his first two seasons, an eagle-eyed Cousins could net them an offer they can’t refuse this offseason.